Freedom in the Liberal Tradition

Abstract

Michael Freeden approaches freedom as an essentially contestable concept—one that necessarily has a number of possible meanings. After covering this methodological assumption, the chapter discusses freedom’s development within the liberal tradition. An overview of Locke’s account of freedom is given, and it is argued that the ideological developments that had occurred by John Stuart Mill’s day were substantive enough to classify these two belief systems as distinct ideologies. From here the interview covers the competition between individualist, or libertarian, conceptions of freedom, and progressive liberal ones. It is argued that the latter played a key role in the development of welfare states, and the former in arguing against them. Freeden concludes with an argument against the possibility, or even desirability, of any permanent consensus in politics.